How fast is a macOS VM, and how small could it be?

Key Themes from the Discussion

1. Memory sizing & ballooning limits in macOS VMs

2. "Starting with 4 virtual cores and 8 GB vRAM, where the VM ran perfectly briskly with around 5 GB of memory used" – nottorp

3. macOS memory efficiency and potential for lower footprints

4. "macOS is generally pretty amazing at efficient memory usage and VM (virtual memory subsystem) handling. So even an 8 GB machine can run pretty impressive workloads without the user thinking the machine is underpowered." – sgt

5. Practical pain points with Docker/VM setups on macOS

6. "My only experience with VMs on macOS is colima+docker, and it's relatively painful and inefficient (but usable)." – mgaunard